Got a chance to watch the premiere of The Janitor and here’s
my take on the film. You may think this is just another story of a janitor who
rose from rags to riches or from nothing to everything, well your in for a
surprise. Nothing I mention above happened.

This is actually a real life drama that is happening before
our eyes yet we chose to ignore. It is about what is going on behind most
things we know or thought we knew.

The story started when a bank robbery happened early in the
morning of one normal day and ended horrendously. All employees of the bank was
killed in cold blood so as to hide the identities of the perpetrators.

After the authorities reacted to this violent crime, they
began to search for the killers. As usual, they found the lookout guy of the criminals played by Nicco Manalo who was tortured and forced to pinpoint who his accomplices were. The
torture tactics was shown in this film which will reveal some truths behind the
rumors we are aware of how police do their job to get answers from suspects.

Successfully, the police were able to ferret out the “truth”
from the captured suspect which, by the way is a tricycle driver. One by one he
identifies all his cohorts in the crime committed.

But instead of arresting all the suspects involved, the
police used an illegal method in capturing the criminals. They used an assassin played by Dennis Trillo who's also an ex-cop, to finish all those supposedly involve in the robbery and killing. This is
where the janitor comes in so as to clean the mess caused by the criminals.

Versatile actor Dennis Trillo during the movie's blogcon

The police assassin was given the information of each target
he is supposed to take down. Every "intel" was being handed down to him by his superior officer played by Richard Gomez, whom he respects and trust most. It involves at least two policemen and other gang
members. One of the suspect police is a well known drug-buster played by Derek Ramsay. This is why the
assassin policeman started to have doubts on the information given to him by
his superiors. But still he went on to do all what was being told and was able
to finish his mission.

But something don’t add up for the janitor. He found out that
something didn't make any sense and soon went out to investigate on his own. He was
able to track down the lookout guy and forced him to tell the truth. He later
found out the guy just made up the stories to escape further torture thus hanging a
question of who were the real criminals. They maybe still at large.

The story gives us a perspective of how things are happening
in real life. Everyday we find crimes happening and when the police capture
suspects to show us, sometimes we doubt if they are the real criminals. Some
crimes even went unsolved up to this day.

The film also depicts of Filipino family culture. It is evident in the story that Crisanto (Dennis Trillo) lives with his pregnant wife played by LJ Reyes together with Crisanto's parents with Irma Adlawan as his mother, who's paralyzed in the movie and Dante Rivero, the ruthless father. Everyone in the film played their part effectively and very well. This supports the statement, "There are no small roles, only small actors."

The beautiful LJ Reyes

Everyone in the story were so "in" with their characters. Kudos to the whole cast and crew and of course to direk Michael Tuviera who had leveled "The Janitor" like that of the Hollywood films no wonder this film was the most awarded in the recently concluded Cinemalaya awards. Superb performances by the actors, double thumbs up!

Direk Mike Tuviera

I also wanted to commend Nicco Manalo for his portrayal of the role as the tortured suspect. That was the first time I saw him acting on screen but oh boy, that was so remarkable! Of
course, Dennis Trillo, hats-off to you! You are such a versatile actor and hope
that the Philippine cinema could produce more and embark on amazing actors like
you. You're such an inspiration to your co-actors! Hope that you'd achieve
everything that's on your bucket list. Truly, we could never get away with the truth, it'll haunt you. But the real problem lies when and where... and sometimes life is not that fair after all. In any standard, we should not forget to do good things to others so that good karma and good vibes will always come our way. Here's my Q and A moment with Dennis Trillo

If you wanna know and be aware of what's real and what's supposedly the "ugly truth" in our society, please do watch this film. A very timely movie that will render you a lot of realizations in life. Graded A by the CEB and rated R 16 by MTRCB, Produced by APT Entertainment and distributed by Star Cinema. "The Janitor" is still showing in your favorite theaters nationwide! Do check out #TheJanitor album posted in my Facebook page: